With a new state-of-the-art, 20,000-square-foot visitors center and rebuilt structures from the original fort, the 361-acre state historic site sees more than one million visitors each year and is one of the most-visited historic sites in North Carolina.

“In the waning days of the war, Fort Fisher’s defenses made it possible for the Confederacy’s blockade runners to support Gen. Robert E. Lee’s troops with much-needed supplies,” explains Jim Steele, who for the past 18 years has served as manager at the historic site. “Protecting the port of Wilmington, Fort Fisher continued to thwart Union assaults until Jan. 15, 1865, when it fell from combined land and sea attacks.”

From the end of the Civil war until 1921, the fort lay dormant with little attention, except for the marker that was placed by the New Hanover County Historical Commission. Ten years later, the Fort Fisher Preservation Society was formed to initiate conservation of the fort.

“That planning was halted until World War II when it became a training station for the US Army. At that time, a 100-yard wide strip from Highway 421 to Fisher Boulevard was bulldozed to create a half-mile airstrip from today’s Kure Beach town limit to Fisher Boulevard.

“Six mounds called traverses have survived to give an idea of the original structure along the land face,” Steele says. “Rebuilding the seventh through ninth traverses, destroyed by the airstrip, was part of the restoration and building of the new visitors’ center.”

Construction began in October 2022. The two-story Visitor’s Center re-opened in November 2024 with interactive exhibits and several hundred artifacts from the Civil War and the WWII eras. The Through Their Eyes exhibit tells the region’s history from pre-colonial times through the WWII years with personal stories of the people who experienced these moments.

“Not only do we tell the Civil War story of the fort, we include a great deal of information about how the fort and land was used during WWII from 1941–44,” he says. “While it served as a training facility for the Army, what many people don’t know is that the Women’s Air Service Pilots (WASP) were a vital part of the anti-aircraft gunnery training here.”

In 1961, Fort Fisher became a National Historic Landmark, the first in North Carolina. The Fort Fisher State Historic Site is managed by The NC Division of State Historic Sites and properties, with help from the non-profit Friends of Fort Fisher.